Unibody desk telephone

ABSTRACT

An example system for a telephone can include a unibody plate having a front portion and a back portion, a back plate mounted to the back portion of the unibody plate, and a touch sensitive display panel mounted to the front portion of the unibody plate. The unibody plate can be of a single piece of milled material. The back portion of the back plate, when combined with the unibody plate, can forming at least one cavity such as a speaker cavity. The speaker cavity can include a speaker mount, a speaker cradle, and a speaker. The speaker cradle can have an interior portion and be secured to the back plate. The speaker mount can engages the back portion of the unibody plate and the rim of speaker cradle. The speaker can be mounted within the interior portion of the speaker cradle.

RELATED APPLICATION

This application is a continuation of U.S. patent application Ser. No.15/066,940 filed on Mar. 10, 2016 and titled UNIBODY DESK TELEPHONE, thecontents of which is incorporated by reference herein in its entirety.

BACKGROUND

Although many people are accustomed to modern “smart phones” that theycarry around in their pocket, the small form factor is less ideal forprolonged use. When portability is not a priority, such as in a deskenvironment, people prefer larger telephones that provide betterergonomics, desk stability, and ready availability. However, these largetelephones can seem outdated in comparison to their thinner and lighterconsumer counterparts.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE FIGURES

In order to describe the manner in which the above-recited and otheradvantages and features of the disclosure can be obtained, a moreparticular description of the principles briefly described above will berendered by reference to specific embodiments thereof which areillustrated in the appended drawings. Understanding that these drawingsdepict only example embodiments of the disclosure and are not thereforeto be considered to be limiting of its scope, the principles herein aredescribed and explained with additional specificity and detail throughthe use of the accompanying drawings in which:

FIG. 1A illustrates an example telephone according to variousembodiments;

FIG. 1B illustrates an exploded view of example telephone according tovarious embodiments;

FIG. 2A illustrates an example unibody plate according to variousembodiments;

FIG. 2B illustrates a side view of an example unibody plate according tovarious embodiments;

FIG. 2C illustrates a back view of an example unibody plate according tovarious embodiments;

FIG. 3A illustrates an example speaker assembly according to variousembodiments;

FIG. 3B illustrates an exploded view of an example speaker assemblyaccording to various embodiments;

FIG. 4 illustrates an exploded view of an example mute button accordingto various embodiments;

FIG. 5A illustrates an example back plate according to variousembodiments; and

FIG. 5B illustrates an example side view of back plate according tovarious embodiments.

DESCRIPTION OF EXAMPLE EMBODIMENTS

Additional features and advantages of the disclosure will be set forthin the description which follows, and in part will be obvious from thedescription, or can be learned by practice of the herein disclosedprinciples. The features and advantages of the disclosure can berealized and obtained by means of the instruments and combinationsparticularly pointed out in the appended claims. These and otherfeatures of the disclosure will become more fully apparent from thefollowing description and appended claims, or can be learned by thepractice of the principles set forth herein.

Various example embodiments of the disclosure are discussed in detailbelow. While specific implementations are discussed, it should beunderstood that this is done for illustration purposes only. A personskilled in the relevant art will recognize that other components andconfigurations may be used without parting from the spirit and scope ofthe disclosure.

Overview:

The present technology includes a unibody desk telephone. An examplesystem for a telephone including the present technology can include aunibody plate having a front portion and a back portion, a back platemounted to the back portion of the unibody plate, and a touch sensitivedisplay panel mounted to the front portion of the unibody plate. Theunibody plate can be of a single piece of milled material. The backportion of the back plate, when combined with the unibody plate, canform at least one cavity such as a speaker cavity. The speaker cavitycan include a speaker mount, a speaker cradle, and a speaker. Thespeaker cradle can have an interior portion and be secured to the backplate. The speaker mount can engage the back portion of the unibodyplate and the rim of speaker cradle. The speaker can be mounted withinthe interior portion of the speaker cradle.

Description:

As shown in FIG. 1A, telephone 100 can be a modern and attractive deskor wall-mounted telephone. In some embodiments, telephone 100 hashandset 102 and display panel 106. Phone 100 can have physical buttonssuch as volume rocker 106 and mute button 108. Phone 100 can containunibody plate 104 for aesthetic design and structural support. In someembodiments, telephone 100 can be placed on a desk in various positionsprovided by stand 112. In some embodiments, stand 112 can fold with theremainder of telephone 100 allowing telephone 100 to be mounted on awall.

FIG. 1B depicts an exploded view of some components of telephone 100.For example, display panel 106 can be placed on the front portion ofunibody plate 104 while speaker mount 120, speaker cradle 122, andelectronics board 126 can be placed on the back portion (e.g., rear) ofunibody plate 104. Backplate 128 can be placed behind unibody plate 104and can cover internal components such as electronics board 126 whilealso providing some structural support. Volume rocker 106 and mutebutton 108 can be placed in front of unibody plate 104 and withinopenings in display panel 106. It should be understood that FIGS. 1A and1B are not complete representations of the components that can comprisetelephone 100. In some embodiments, telephone 100 has more or fewercomponents. For example, in some embodiments, telephone 100 can omithandset 102 and in some embodiments, telephone 100 can have an antennafor wireless communication.

Display panel 106 can be a touchscreen display panel. In some suchembodiments, display panel 106 can present various interfaces such as a10-key dialer, a directory, status indicators, etc. In some embodiments,display panel 106 can facilitate video telephony. Display panel 106 canbe combined with haptic feedback to enhance touchscreen usability andprovide intuitive interaction. Display panel 106 can comprise a hardtransparent panel such as glass. Display panel 106 can have an opaquebezel surrounding a display element such as a liquid crystal display.Within the bezel region, there can be translucent or transparent regionsthrough which indicator lights can be seen. In some embodiments, thebezel can have one or more apertures cut out, through which buttons(e.g., mute button 108) can pass through. In some embodiments, there isa translucent or transparent region surrounding an aperture where anindicator light can be seen. For example, if the aperture is a circleand mute button 108 passes through the circle, there can be atranslucent ring around the aperture that, when illuminated, canindicate that telephone 100 is muted. In some embodiments, display panel106 can contain processing and battery power so that it can be removedand operate independently from telephone 100, for example as a tabletcomputer or mobile telephone. In some embodiments, display panel 106 isattached to telephone 100 along with a cushion element such as rubber toabsorb small vibrations that might result from user operation and toprovide a seamless fit between display panel 106 and the rest oftelephone 100.

FIG. 2A depicts an example unibody plate 104 in isolation from othercomponents. In some embodiments, unibody plate 104 is a single piece ofmaterial. Unibody plate 104 can be made out of aluminum, magnesium,plastic, wood, carbon fiber, etc. and can be machined, die-cast, forged,carved, 3D printed, grown, molded, etc. Unibody plate 104 can be createdusing a combination of materials and techniques. Unibody plate 104 canbe made of denser materials that, because of the increased weight,signal to the user that telephone 100 is a premium product of sturdyconstruction. Unibody plate 104 can have exposed portions such asspeaker vent 202 as well as hidden potions (i.e., hidden when telephone100 is assembled) such as display cradle 208. Unibody plate 104 cancontain openings such as pass-through 206, USB aperture 230, and headsetaperture 232 whereby components such as cables can pass through or beaccessed through unibody plate 104. In some embodiments, such openingsare in places not required for structural support. In some embodiments,openings can be created to optimize weight, encourage heat dissipation,and minimize material cost. In some embodiments, such an optimal weightis a weight that minimizes slippage of telephone 100 while resting on adesk during normal use. Because telephone 100 utilizes unibody plate104, telephone 100 can be thinner as the unibody plate provides strengthand rigidity to the assembled device. The materials chosen for theunbody plate must be able to provide the requisite strength and rigidityto support all of the phone components, and especially the displaypanel. Components can be glued or fastened to unibody plate 104.

Unibody plate 104 can have a front portion and a back portion. In FIG.2A, the front portion is the visible portion while the back portion isthe opposite side (shown in FIG. 2C). In some embodiments, back plate128 is mounted to the back portion of unibody plate 104. In someembodiments, the perimeter of unibody plate has a ridge designed toreceive clips on back plate 128.

Front panel 104 can snap in, rest upon, or otherwise be supported byunibody plate 104. In some embodiments, display cradle 208 can be arecessed portion of unibody plate 104 wherein display panel 106, wheninstalled, lies flush with an exposed surface of unibody plate 104.

Speaker vent 202 can be a grating, mesh, collection of apertures, etc.to mitigate the passage of dust and debris while allowing sound to passthrough.

FIG. 2B shows a side view of unibody plate 104. Thickness 250 can be themaximum width of unibody plate 104 (excluding mount 240 a and mount 240b which can be located towards the center of unibody plate 104). In someembodiments, thickness 250 also represents the perimeter thickness oftelephone 100 (excluding a fillet) while telephone 100 can have agreater thickness towards the center of telephone 100. Therefore, anexposed perimeter of unibody plate 104 can appear to substantiallydefine the overall thickness of telephone 100, with the thicker elementsbeing relatively hidden. Thickness 250 can be greater than 4.5millimeters (“mm”) to accommodate USB aperture 230 and less than 20 mm.Other effective ranges of thickness 250 can include 5 mm-9 mm and 7.5mm-8.5 mm.

FIG. 3A shows speaker assembly 300. Speaker assembly 300 can be integralto unibody plate 104 or be made of separate components. Speaker assembly300 can house a speaker (not depicted) that can be used for“speakerphone” capabilities of telephone 100. In some embodiments,speaker assembly 300 is set behind speaker vent 202 formed in theunibody plate. As depicted in FIG. 1B, speaker assembly can comprisespeaker mount 120 and speaker cradle 122. In some embodiments, speakermount 120 and speaker cradle 122 are one integrated unit. In someembodiments, speaker mount 120 can have ridge 302 as a feature. Ridge302 can provide an acoustic seal by interfacing with the unibody plateto provide enhanced sound quality from speaker assembly 300 and preventrattling between speaker assembly 300 and unibody plate 104. In someembodiments, ridge 302 is rubber, silicone, glue, adhesive, wood,plastic, etc. In some embodiments, ridge 302 is a feature that iscontiguous with speaker mount 300. In some embodiments, speaker cradle122 does not hold a speaker but is a speaker (i.e., a transducer).

FIG. 3B shows an exploded view of speaker assembly 300 including speakermount 120 and speaker cradle 120. Speaker cradle 120 can have aninterior portion 306 formed inside of speaker cradle 120 and mountingholes 304 for mounting speaker cradle 120 to back plate 128.

FIG. 4 depicts an exploded view of mute button 108. As mentionedpreviously, in some embodiments, mute button 108 is positioned alongsidea touchscreen and within an aperture in display panel 106. In someembodiments, other buttons (e.g., volume rocker 106) can be made usingthe principles disclosed for mute button 108 but for other tasks such as“pick up”, “hang up”, “speakerphone”, “volume”, etc. Mute button 108 canprovide a tactile response to help a user recognize that mute button 108has been pressed. In some embodiments, mute button 108 or a region nearor surrounding mute button 108 can be illuminated to indicate mutebutton's 108 status, for example, when telephone 100 is muted.

Cap 402 can be affixed to translucent dome 406 a which can rest on or beintegral to translucent dome 406 b which can be held by button holder408. Translucent dome 406 a and translucent dome 406 b can collectivelybe referred to as translucent dome 406. Mute button 108 can compriseillumination element 410 that can provide a status indicator for mutebutton 108. Cap 402 can be opaque, translucent, or a combination of thetwo. For example, cap 402 can be generally opaque except for atranslucent icon or design on top. Cap 402 can have a contact portionwhere a user can push to activate mute button 108. Cap 402 can be fixedto translucent dome 406 using adhesive, friction, etc. In someembodiments, cap 402 is a material that is painted on or combined withtranslucent dome 406.

Translucent dome 406 can comprise two components that are jointly moldedusing a double shot injection mold. In some embodiments, translucentdome 406 a can be a stiff material while translucent dome 406 b can be amore flexible material such as silicone. In some embodiments,translucent dome 406 a has central portion 412 for receiving cap 402 andouter portion 414. Outer portion 414 can diffuse light coming fromillumination element 410 so that it appears uniform from above. Forexample translucent dome 406 can be located directly under display panel106. This can permit a ring of uniform light to be seen through displaypanel 106 in a region surrounding the cap which resides within anopening in display panel 106. Tab 416 can protrude horizontally fromtranslucent dome 406 a and activate a switch in telephone 100 thatdetects that mute button 108 has been depressed.

Button seat 408 can be attached to a PCB and can hold translucent dome406 in place to prevent slipping. Button seat 408 can have a raised lipfor this effect.

FIG. 5A shows the inside of back plate 128 in isolation. Back plate 128,when combined with other components of telephone 100, can form one ormore cavities. For example, speaker cavity 504 to house speaker assembly300 and electronics cavity 502. Electronics cavity 502 can be a centrallocation within back plate that provides space for more bulky componentsof telephone 100 to be hidden. For example, electronics cavity canaccommodate at least one telecommunications port (e.g., an RJ45 port,RJ11 port, etc.) as well as a power receptacle. Back plate 128 can beattached to a back portion of unibody plate 104. In some embodiments,back plate 128 has tabs 416 for connecting to unibody plate 104. Thiscan make it so that back plate 128 does not require screws to mount itonto unibody plate 104 and thus back plate 128 can have no visiblescrews or screw holes (though internal, hidden, screws and holes may beused).

FIG. 5B shows a side view of back plate 128. As discussed above,electronics cavity 502 can be located centrally within back plate 128 tokeep thickness 250 around the perimeter of telephone 100 to a minimumand creating the impression that thickness 250 is the defining width oftelephone 100. The shape of back portion of back plate 128 can betriangular, curved, trapezoidal etc. Thickness 504 can represent thewidth of back plate 128 at electronics cavity 502 (e.g., defining the“thickest dimension” of the “thickest portion”). Thickness 504 can be 15mm-50 mm, including ranges of 20 mm-25 mm, and 22 mm-23 mm. Thickness504 can be 22.5 mm. Various thicknesses 504 can be appropriate based onthe size and type of components in electronics cavity 502. Backplate canhave openings through which cables and pass.

For clarity of explanation, in some instances the present technology maybe presented as including individual functional blocks includingfunctional blocks comprising devices, device components, steps orroutines in a method embodied in software, or combinations of hardwareand software.

In some embodiments the computer-readable storage devices, mediums, andmemories can include a cable or wireless signal containing a bit streamand the like. However, when mentioned, non-transitory computer-readablestorage media expressly exclude media such as energy, carrier signals,electromagnetic waves, and signals per se.

Methods according to the above-described examples can be implementedusing computer-executable instructions that are stored or otherwiseavailable from computer readable media. Such instructions can comprise,for example, instructions and data which cause or otherwise configure ageneral purpose computer, special purpose computer, or special purposeprocessing device to perform a certain function or group of functions.Portions of computer resources used can be accessible over a network.The computer executable instructions may be, for example, binaries,intermediate format instructions such as assembly language, firmware, orsource code. Examples of computer-readable media that may be used tostore instructions, information used, and/or information created duringmethods according to described examples include magnetic or opticaldisks, flash memory, USB devices provided with non-volatile memory,networked storage devices, and so on.

Devices implementing methods according to these disclosures can comprisehardware, firmware and/or software, and can take any of a variety ofform factors. Typical examples of such form factors include laptops,smart phones, small form factor personal computers, personal digitalassistants, rackmount devices, standalone devices, and so on.Functionality described herein also can be embodied in peripherals oradd-in cards. Such functionality can also be implemented on a circuitboard among different chips or different processes executing in a singledevice, by way of further example.

The instructions, media for conveying such instructions, computingresources for executing them, and other structures for supporting suchcomputing resources are means for providing the functions described inthese disclosures.

Although a variety of examples and other information was used to explainaspects within the scope of the appended claims, no limitation of theclaims should be implied based on particular features or arrangements insuch examples, as one of ordinary skill would be able to use theseexamples to derive a wide variety of implementations. Further andalthough some subject matter may have been described in languagespecific to examples of structural features and/or method steps, it isto be understood that the subject matter defined in the appended claimsis not necessarily limited to these described features or acts. Forexample, such functionality can be distributed differently or performedin components other than those identified herein. Rather, the describedfeatures and steps are disclosed as examples of components of systemsand methods within the scope of the appended claims. Moreover, claimlanguage reciting “at least one of” a set indicates that one member ofthe set or multiple members of the set satisfy the claim.

What is claimed is:
 1. A telephone comprising: a unibody plate having(i) a front portion defining a surface with an exposed portion and ahidden portion, and (ii) a back portion; a back plate mounted to theback portion of the unibody plate, the back portion combined with theunibody plate forming at least one cavity; and a touch sensitive displaypanel mounted to the front portion of the unibody plate.
 2. Thetelephone of claim 1 wherein the unibody plate is comprised of a singlepiece of milled material.
 3. The telephone of claim 1, wherein the atleast one cavity is a speaker cavity, the speaker cavity comprising: aspeaker assembly including a speaker mount, a speaker cradle, and aspeaker, wherein: the speaker cradle comprises an interior portion andis secured to the back plate, the speaker mount engages the back portionof the unibody plate and a rim of the speaker cradle, and the speaker ismounted within the interior portion of the speaker cradle.
 4. Thetelephone of claim 3, wherein the at least one cavity further includesan electronics cavity in addition to the speaker cavity.
 5. Thetelephone of claim 1, wherein at least one opening is formed within thetouch sensitive display panel to accommodate a physical control button.6. The telephone of claim 5, wherein the physical control button is amute button assembly, the mute button assembly comprising: alight-emitting diode, a translucent dome, and an opaque contact portion,the opaque contact portion seated on top of a central portion of thetranslucent dome such that an outer portion of the translucent dome isnot covered by the opaque contact portion, and the translucent domecovering the light-emitting diode, whereby light emitted from thelight-emitting diode is visible through the outer portion of thetranslucent dome.
 7. The telephone of claim 6, wherein the outer portionof the translucent dome is located directly under the touch sensitivedisplay panel while the opaque contact portion protrudes through theopening formed within the touch sensitive display panel, whereby,whereby light emitted from the light-emitting diode is visible throughthe touch sensitive display panel and surrounding the opaque contactportion.
 8. The telephone of claim 7, wherein the light-emitting diodeis configured to emit light upon actuation of the mute button assembly.9. The telephone of claim 1, wherein the at least one cavity furtherincludes an electronics cavity, the electronics cavity having a bulgedshape, wherein the thickest portion of the bulge accommodates at leastone telecommunications port.
 10. The telephone of claim 9, wherein theat least one telecommunications port is an RJ45 jack and the bulge isconfigured to be large enough to accommodate the RJ45 jack.
 11. Thetelephone of claim 1, wherein the electronics cavity is between 1-5centimeters at its thickest dimension.
 12. The telephone of claim 1,wherein the at least one cavity is a speaker cavity, the speaker cavitycomprising: a speaker assembly including a speaker mount and a speaker,wherein: the speaker is secured to the back plate; and the speaker mountengages the back portion of the unibody plate and the rim of speaker.13. The telephone of claim 1, wherein the back plate does not haveexternally visible screw holes and is mounted to the back portion ofunibody plate using tabs.
 14. A system comprising: a unibody platehaving (i) a front portion defining a surface with an exposed portionand a hidden portion, and (ii) a back portion; a back plate mounted tothe back portion of the unibody plate, the back portion combined withthe unibody plate forming at least one cavity; and a touch sensitivedisplay panel mounted to the front portion of the unibody plate.
 15. Thesystem of claim 14 wherein the unibody plate is comprised of a singlepiece of milled material.
 16. The system of claim 14, wherein the atleast one cavity is a speaker cavity, the speaker cavity comprising: aspeaker assembly including a speaker mount, a speaker cradle, and aspeaker, wherein: the speaker cradle comprises an interior portion andis secured to the back plate, the speaker mount engages the back portionof the unibody plate and a rim of the speaker cradle, and the speaker ismounted within the interior portion of the speaker cradle.
 17. Thesystem of claim 16 wherein the at least one cavity further includes anelectronics cavity in addition to the speaker cavity.
 18. The system ofclaim 14, wherein at least one opening is formed within the touchsensitive display panel to accommodate a physical control button. 19.The system of claim 18, wherein the physical control button is a mutebutton assembly, the mute button assembly comprising: a light-emittingdiode, a translucent dome, and an opaque contact portion, the opaquecontact portion seated on top of a central portion of the translucentdome such that an outer portion of the translucent dome is not coveredby the opaque contact portion, and the translucent dome covering thelight-emitting diode, whereby light emitted from the light-emittingdiode is visible through the outer portion of the translucent dome. 20.The system of claim 19, wherein the outer portion of the translucentdome is located directly under the touch sensitive display panel whilethe opaque contact portion protrudes through the at least one openingformed within the touch sensitive display panel, whereby, whereby lightemitted from the light-emitting diode is visible through the touchsensitive display panel and surrounding the opaque contact portion.